The number of purchases of Korean patent information DB by foreign patent information service companies is increasing.

The foreign patent information service companies reprocess the DB, to provide companies throughout the world with patent search and analysis services. The companies use the patent information to develop technologies or to establish patent application filing strategies.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the number of foreign patent information service companies purchasing the Korean patent information DB was one (1) in 2006 but it increased to five (5) in 2008 and seven (7) in 2010.

The purchasing companies have expanded from US companies to GB, French and Japanese companies.

Such an increase and expansion are considered as resulting from the increasing interest in the patents owned by Korean companies as the Korean companies’ patent competition has become high in the global markets and patent disputes have intensified.

Since foreign companies’ offensives are being strengthened to hold Korean companies in check, the demand for Korean patent information is expected to continue to increase as shown in the smart phone patent litigation between Samsung Electronics and Apple and the LED patent litigation between Seoul Semiconductor and Philips.

2. The information program budget for medium and small companies will greatly increase by KIPO

KIPO announced that it would greatly increase the information program budget for the next year, to expand the participation of medium and small software companies in the patent administrative information program.

The total information program budget for 2012 by KIPO is 43.7 billion Korea Won which was reduced by 1.1% in comparison with the 44.2billion Korea Won in 2011. However, the information program budget for medium and small companies was from 4.4 billion Korea Won in 2011 to 5.6 billion Korea Won in 2012 showing an increase of 27.3%.

To increase the information program budget for medium and small companies, KIPO first decided to actively seek that information business which can be carried out by medium and small companies and to entrust the information business to the companies.

3. Korean companies are passive in securing European patents

Korean companies are passive in securing European patents.

KIPO and Korean Intellectual Property Protection Association (KIPRA) jointly analyzed foreign patent application and registration data of all countries of the world for fifteen (15) years from 1995 to 2009. As the result, among the 126,000 patents registered in foreign countries by Korean patentees, the percentage of European patents was only 9%.

The number of the patents registered in US during the same period was 63,000, reaching 50% of the total number. The number of the patents registered in each of Japan and China was 20,000 (16% of the total number).

The percentage of European registered patents was greatly turned over in comparison with the scale of export.

KIPO did research on the ratio of the number of foreign registered patents to the amount of export during the period of 2005~2009. As the result, the most cases were registered in US with 153 cases (per one billion US dollars of export value), followed by Japan with 90 cases, China with 33 cases and Europe with 10 cases, the least. Considering that the scale of export to Europe follows that to China, the number of the cases registered in Europe is very small per one billion US dollars of export value.

4. Apple counterattacks the Korean B2B market

Apple desires a terminal for Korean business-to-business (B2B).

While Samsung Electronics has announced the preoccupancy of a global mobile B2B market by a ‘self employment assistance (SEA) program’, Apple has carried out a ‘main room attack’ of Samsung.

The situation is that the two companies have made a full-scale war including a head to head showdown regarding the B2B market, following a fight for the business-to-consumer (B2C) market and a patent battle.

According to the information distribution world, Apple will market the Mac Mini server-based mobile office solution products for medium and small companies within the year.

An interested person of an exclusive distributor of the Apple B2B said, “with a Korean mobile communication carrier, Apple plans to release the mobile office solution formed through the connection between mobile equipment (such as iPhone and iPad) and the Apple server within the year.” The interested person also said, “the solution appeals to the medium and small B2B market in the view of the point that it is possible to construct an efficient mobile office at low cost.”

The Apple solution for a company has the feature where a wire/wireless service (fixed-mobile convergence: FMC) is possible through the Mac Mini server.

When a company introduces the solution, it is possible for employees to work through wire/wireless networks out of the company.